BROWNSVILLE, Texas — A flying car is in sight.
Don’t get overly excited, no one is handing you the keys yet.
It will be a professionally trained and piloted taxi built by Paragon VTOL Aerospace and manufactured in Brownsville, Texas.
“I'm envisioning a future where transportation works, where we don't have to fight with congested traffic, and you're able to get from point A to point B to get your time back,” said Dwight Smith, chief visionary officer and founder of Paragon VTOL Aerospace.
Smith told KENS 5 he’s been envisioning and making things since about the time kids go to first grade.
“When I was 6 years old I was grafting plants to make new fruit species,” he said. “When I was 7 I built a glider aircraft and we tested and flew it around our neighborhood.”
His desire to see what more can be imagined turned into Paragon VTOL Aerospace.
The people who are promising us a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, flying by 2025.
In simpler terms: a piloted taxi, which Smith envisions will transport people of the future who are also dressed like the vehicle (at least in the mock-up).
“In terms of the attire on the website, yeah, I kind of got a little crazy with that,” he laughed. “It was fun to do it.”
Smith said the vertical takeoff and landing aircraft can be used for cargo; in those cases, it will still be piloted by a trained pilot and no human will be needed if the aircraft is used for border security.
Smith said the aircraft will be zero-carbon and give off zero emissions, fueled by its own sustainable energy source and the infrastructure to support it.
Smith said the air transport will eventually be manufactured and tested in Brownsville.
“We chose Brownsville for manufacturing headquarters because the labor force-the multigenerational families, the access to the border, which on the other side is the town of Matamoros, which has the maquiladoras, which is like the outsourced manufacturing facilities that we can utilize as well to create certain parts and components to be then shipped across the border to Brownsville where we can do a lot of final assembly,” Smith said.
Smith says Paragon is building a complete version of the flying vehicle now and plans to start testing first part of next year.
He told KENS 5 he chose to realize his venture in Texas, because the state is business friendly.